That was a great night, and starting it with that spectacular meteor was perfect. I can't believe how long that thing burned for as it stretched across the sky. That one is etched in my memory with three other meteors (a bolide from Eagle Bluff about 3 years ago, a fantastic fireball from RCTC that I saw with Brandon, and the bolide we saw at the StarBQ). It was a glorious night for astronomy, and it wasn't even dark yet!
Here's a few items I journalized:
NGC 891
NGC 752
NGC 772
NGC 7789
NGC 457
NGC 654
NGC 129
NGC 663
NGC 136
NGC 225
NGC 436
NGC 381
NGC 156
NGC 651
Fourteen Herschel objects. I used the C set of the free Tri-Atlas to find all of these. It works pretty well.
I also looked at an S shape (it's actually called the backwards 5) asterism in Hercules. Jupiter was very clear/stable. I'd say the seeing was 7.5 of 10?even 8 at times. Very nice. Other than the thin clouds we battled early on, the transparency was pretty good too. Transparency was anywere from 0 (when the clouds passed over) to 8.5 out of 10 (and I'm considering 10 unattainable in MN).
A G. N. F. A.